Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

New EPA website compiles agency cancer prevention efforts

Posted by Jon Elliott on Mon, Oct 23, 2023

On September 13, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added to its website a portal with information about the agency’s many regulatory, research and informational efforts addressing carcinogen hazards and controls. This information supports the Biden Administration’s “Cancer Moonshot.”  EPA undertakes carcinogen control efforts by applying legal authority under many of the environmental protection statutes it administers. The remainder of this note summarizes the agency efforts identified on EPA’s new web portal.

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Tags: Health & Safety, EPA, CAA, tsca, CWA, NESHAPs, FIFRA, Healthcare, Illness, Cancer Moonshot

EPA proposes non-detect lead contamination standards after residential abatement

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Aug 29, 2023

Lead and lead-containing materials are among the longest-used materials in construction and industry. Lead has been used in commercial, residential, and ceramic paint; in electric batteries and other devices; as a gasoline additive; for weighting; and other purposes. It also has been recognized as toxic to human health and the environment at least since the Romans, although understanding of the extent and severity of lead hazards has improved greatly in recent decades. Accordingly, environmental, occupational and public health agencies have progressively tightened standards to reduce lead exposures. On August 1, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to tighten post-remediation clearance levels as low as “non-detect.” The rest of this note discusses EPA’s latest proposal, and provides some context and background.

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Tags: EHS, EPA, tsca, Hazardous Waste, ESG

EPA proposes to revise PCB rules to facilitate cleanups

Posted by Jon Elliott on Mon, Dec 13, 2021

In 1976, an important motivation for enactment of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was to empower the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which had been developed as superlative insulation fluids but had come to be recognized as persistent toxic contaminants that bioaccumulate in the environment. TSCA banned the manufacturing, processing and distribution of new PCBs effective January 1, 1978, except in a “totally enclosed manner” or with an express exemption from EPA (including a finding that the exempt activity does not pose an “unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment”). Even enclosed activities were banned beginning in 1979, unless with an express exemption from EPA. Additional provisions apply to non-banned activities, and to the cleanup and disposal of PCB-containing wastes. PCBs remain in use in enclosed/exempt locations throughout the country, and new contamination is identified from new leaks and legacy sites.

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Tags: EPA, tsca, CWA, Environment, Toxic, Toxics Release, PCBs

Employment Law: Protecting Whistleblowers Protects the Organization

Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Mar 17, 2021

Regulators often rely on whistleblowers to reveal ongoing violations, and prosecutors rely on whistleblowers and informants from time to time to “make their cases.” Recognizing this value, many federal and state laws provide explicit protections for employees who report actual or potential violations to their employers or to the agencies that administer and enforce those laws.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has administered such a provision for workers disclosing violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act for more than 40 years. In the intervening decades, a wide variety of federal statutes have expanded OSHA’s whistleblower protection activities, assigning OSHA to enforce whistleblower protection provisions of other laws; as of 2021 this authority covers 24 distinct federal laws. The best known and most litigated of these non-worker laws probably is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx) – Section 806 of that law protects whistleblowers who report activities that may violate anti-fraud provisions of the federal Securities Acts. The rest of this posting identifies these laws, and summarizes how OSHA administers them.

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Tags: OSHA, tsca, Labour & Employment, SDWA, ACA, ERA, FSMA, FRSA, OSH Act, AMLA, AHERA, CFPA, CPSIA, CAARA, FWPCA, ISCA, NTSSA, PSIA, SPA, STAA, TFA

EPA Finalizes First List of “Low Priority” Chemicals

Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Apr 15, 2020

The 2016 Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act”) assigned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a variety of new responsibilities and powers to review and regulate chemicals in commerce in the United States. These changes include additional requirements to review chemicals already in use (I summarized this piece of the new TSCA here). Despite all the changes to EPA priorities since 2016 (i.e., during the Trump Administration), EPA has marched forward with these chemical reviews. These reviews include formal statutory requirements to identify separate lists of 20 “high priority” – i.e., potentially high risk – chemicals for accelerated reviews, and 20 “low priority” chemicals EPA considers not to need further review. I wrote about EPA’s 2019 proposals for these lists here.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

EPA’s New Chemical Review Priorities Should Encourage User Reviews Too

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Apr 09, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just proposed to assign chemical review priorities for 40 chemicals, as required by the 2016 Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act”). As required by the 2016 Amendments, the proposal identifies 20 high priority chemicals for evaluation within three years, and 20 low priority chemicals that do not require further evaluation. Once each evaluation is completed, EPA is to determine appropriate regulatory requirements. Organizations that manufacture, process or use any of these chemicals should follow the rulemaking and evaluation process(es), and consider possible substitutes in order to reduce hazards and possible regulatory changes after completion of each relevant evaluation.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

EPA Massively Updates National Chemical TSCA Inventory Database

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Mar 26, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just made massive updates to the largest national data base of chemical information, the TSCA Inventory. Since 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has provided EPA with broad authorities to collect information about chemical substances in commerce in the U.S., including new chemicals that manufacturers and importers hope to bring into commerce. Information about all these substances is collected in the TSCA Inventory.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

EPA is Considering a Regulatory Roadmap For Additional Uses of Asbestos

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Oct 02, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expanding its attention to asbestos and its associated hazards, including both existing uses and possible new uses. EPA is undertaking these initiatives under the aegis of extension of its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), enacted in 2016 Amendments to TSCA -- the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.” (I wrote about provisions relating to existing chemical here, and for new chemicals and new formulations of existing chemicals here).

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

EPA Adopts Rules to Expand Mercury Reporting

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Aug 14, 2018

Among its many provisions, the 2016 Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) require EPA to compile and report an inventory of mercury supply, use, and trade in the United States. (I’ve written about programmatic changes to TSCA by the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act,” here, here, and here.) EPA was directed to publish an initial inventory, covering elemental mercury and mercury compounds, in April 2017, and to publish updates at least every three years thereafter.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, Hazcom, tsca

EPA Issues Annual Chemical Review Plan Under the 2016 Amendments to TSCA

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Mar 13, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published its second Annual Plan for Chemical Risk Evaluations. These evaluation workplans are required by the 2016 Lautenberg Act amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as an expansion of EPA’s long-criticized efforts to evaluate existing chemicals for potential health and safety hazards. This new Annual Plan updates EPA’s efforts since 2016, and continues to formalize procedures.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca